[The film “Roadrunner” about chef Anthony Bourdain,, who tried
to make his food-based adventures as authentic as possible, generates
discussions about the ethics of the art form itself.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

ANTHONY BOURDAIN MOVIE 'ROADRUNNER' DOESN'T ALLOW FOR LIFE'S LOOSE
ENDS  
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Alicia Kennedy
July 25, 2021
NBC News
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_ The film “Roadrunner” about chef Anthony Bourdain,, who tried
to make his food-based adventures as authentic as possible, generates
discussions about the ethics of the art form itself. _

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It makes sense that a documentary about the late writer, television
host and chef Anthony Bourdain would begin a discussion about the
ethics of the art form itself. What does a reconstruction of
someone’s life through cherry-picked talking heads, footage and
private emails read by an artificial intelligence impression really
tell us?

Through his nearly two decades on television in “A Cook’s Tour,”
“No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown,” Bourdain — who became
famous after writing a bestselling, behind-the-scenes memoir about his
life as a chef — tried to make his food-based adventures as
authentic as possible, even though it’s pretty much impossible to
have a completely authentic experience surrounded by cameras.

In “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain,” director Morgan
Neville attempts to find the real Bourdain through the retrofitted
lens of his 2018 death by suicide. Unfortunately, the documentary’s
somewhat salacious and unsubstantiated focus on why Bourdain may have
died mars its more interesting moments. Despite extensive access to
his body of work and inner circle, “Roadrunner” is less about
Bourdain himself and more about how people in his life saw him — a
perspective that shifts when attempting to make sense of a tragic end.
The grief is palpable, but grief doesn’t inherently lead to insight.

Neville took liberties with his subject matter by both commissioning
an artificial voice
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read old emails and other writing (it’s not clear in the film what
is faked) and by paying for a mural of Bourdain to be defaced in the
final scene
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the artist David Choe. Whether documentaries are journalism or
creative nonfiction is an open question, but viewers generally expect
a level of veracity when watching one — especially when there is so
much writing and footage available about the subject. A more powerful
choice would have been asking friends and family to read his words;
instead, while aware there would be A.I., I kept trying to decipher
the real from the facsimile.

The fact that Choe (and others) shared private emails brings up other
questions. What privacy do we owe the dead? This documentary seems to
suggest we owe them very little. Friends reveal words said in dark
moments, when the film itself is about the danger of setting up a
persona for public consumption. While it does succeed in being
something more compelling than simple hagiography, which would further
deify Bourdain, it also stretches into a discomfiting place by trying
to fit a messy, fascinating life into a somewhat tidy box. His past
addictions to heroin and cocaine are mapped onto his “addiction”
to travel by people close to him but certainly not by mental health
professionals. In this way, conjecture is treated like clinical
diagnosis.

There is something to be said, I suppose, for depicting the raw grief
of a recent loss. In the end, though, the documentary serves to
overshadow a grand life by focusing mostly on the way it ended. Even
more troublingly, it seems to blame Bourdain’s girlfriend, actress
and director Asia Argento, for his decision. Neville, though, never
requested an interview with her, telling journalists that it would too
quickly devolve into “they said, she said.” But all that is left,
as a result, is “they said” — and Argento becomes a clear
villain, with more than a whiff of misogyny baked in.

Ultimately, this felt like a film by and for superfans. Bourdain was a
man who was compelling even when he was a jerk, even when he was
uncomfortable. We do come to understand a bit of how he figured out
how to perform for the camera (though, according to his crew, he was
still prickly until the end).

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